Crossing Learning Boundaries By Choice Black People must save themselves a memOlf Charles Z. Wilson authorrlous~ AuthorHouse™ Acknowledgments 1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 200 \"" l Bloomington, IN 4740], / -, .. -/ www.authorhouse.com -"- 1, " <-"'n_~_._._._._._ .. __ ~ Phone: 1-800-839-8640 lhis book is a work ifnon-jiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher The decade of the 70's was a time of change in UCLNs Office of make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy ifthe i11formation contained in this book Academic Programs, and I am extremely thankful for the creative and in some cases, names ifpeople andplaces have been altered to protect their privacy. support of Meg Ross-Price, Vicki Nock, Susan Meives, and Nancy © 2008 Charles Z. Wilson. All rights reserved. Cutter during those years. Meg pushed me constantly to document my initiatives as we crossed new social, cultural, and educational No part ifthis book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or boundaries in academic and student development. She brought transmitted by any means without the written permission ifthe author. together papers, manuscripts, and memoranda from my years at First published by Auth(JrHouse 2/6/2008 Carnegie and SUNY and set in motion the practice of documenting our office activities. Vicki and Susan monitored and evaluated ISBN: 978-1-4343-5237-8 (sc) projects and programs, and as such, they steered, guided, and added ISBN: 978-1-4343-5238-5 (he) further papers, notes, and correspondence to Meg's archival base. Were it not for these well-organized archived materials, writing this book would have been a long, arduous process with far less depth. , Library ifCongress Control Number: 2008900020 Toward the end of the decade, Nancy Cutter provided oversight and Printed in the United States ifAmerica directions for all communications, correspondence, and scheduling. Bloomington, Indiana I could not have written this book without the thoughtful files lhis book is printed on acid-Jree paper. of proposals, commentary, documented office memoranda, and interactive correspondence with colleagues and antagonists that she helped develop and write. With Nancy's backup, I was able to respond with unbelievable speed and self-confidence to new opportunities I '6;; ~ for initiating change. l} My team of staff officers and assistant vice chancellors at UCLA 1l~3 were extremely talented. We literally grew up together in mentor relationships as I tested many of my management development ideas from Carnegie Tech and SUNY Binghamton. This book is filled with the results of joint efforts of very creative, shared leadership. I am extremely grateful for having had the opportunity to share administrative leadership with Allen Yarnell, Juan Lara, Winston Doby, Frank Work, and Andrea Rich. I am particularly grateful for v '""~.~~----------- I however must assume full responsibility for the content of this the friendship and support of the late Robert S. Kinsman, Professor book. All ;he sins of omission and commission in this manuscript of English Literature, and truly a scholar and gentleman of great are mine and mine alone. I am thankful for the presence and support character. Bob Kinsman's leadership during the era of the Urban of my trophy family: Kelly, my wife of twenty-one years, and my Crisis initiative was magnificent. teenage children, Amanda and Walter Bremond, as I bring this Nancy and I started pieces of this book in the late 70's when a young project toward closure. professor, David Boije in the School ofManagement at ULCA, piqued CZ my interest in the concept of Boundary Management. Other than a few in-house memoranda, David Boije and I never fully developed the concept ofboundary management for publication, but I benefited tremendously from his thoughtful suggestions and support. The derivative idea and concept of "Crossing Boundaries" was dormant for almost fifteen years. After retiring from the Wave Newspapers in 2001, I began reviewing my own history of experiences from a boundary-crossing perspective. Frank McRea, a friend and former senior writer from the Wave's editorial staff, and I completed the core draft of this volume in 2005. I benefited gready from the yeoman-like editing efforts of Frank McRae. In early 2006, Sebastian Passanisi, a promising creative writer, pushed me toward bringing clarity and focus to the entire manuscript. He read and suggested hard-hitting revisions of the first five chapters of the current manuscript. Over the past six months, I have spent considerable time incorporating the writing discipline and suggestions of Sebastian and Frank. The book has also benefited from the early comments and suggestions of colleagues at UCLA. I am in debt to Chuck Young, my mentor and friend of forty years, for reading the entire manuscript and encouraging its publication. With encouragements from Chuck and Walter Allen, UCLXs Allan Cartter Professor of Higher Education and Sociology, I have moved with greater confidence toward getting the manuscript in shape for early publication. While revising the manuscript over the past several months, I received comments and suggestions from Berky Nelson and Naomi Lamoreaux, close friends and colleagues at UCLA. I have also had the benefit of comments from my close friend and protege, Dr. Molefi Asante, professor and well-known African scholar. vii vi Table of Contents Preface ........................................................................................... xi Chapter I Growing Up in the Mississippi Delta ............................................. 1 Chapter II Going to Chicago ......................................................................... 42 Chapter III University of Illinois: Isolated Learning Venues ........................... 84 Chapter IV The Park Forest Incident: A Reality Check ................................ 136 Chapter V Searching for Models of Man .................................................... 187 Chapter VI SUNY Binghamton: Shaping the Boundaries of an Emerging Institution .................................................................. 210 Chapter VII Facing the New University Student And Urban Challenges at UCLA ........................................................................................ 251 Chapter VIII UCL.Ns Response to the Urban Crisis ....................................... 310 Chapter IX Challenging Black Inner-City Isolation: My Last Chance ........ 371 Chapter X Lessons of the Past: Observations and Reflections .................... .400 ix Preface Life for me has been about gains and losses. As a native son ofinner­ city black America and the Mississippi Delta, I believe it's time to take stock and reflect. Almost 60 year ago I was one of many black youths deeply immersed in personal activism to break free of the social and economic struggles ofrural and inner-city black America. I have played major roles in defining social and economic expectations for a new middle-class black American. In addition, I have actively taught and provided leadership and support for large segments of America that today are deeply devoted to building a multicultural and highly diverse social and economic society. Despite these accomplishments, I am saddened and frustrated as inner-city black America moves deeper into social and economic isolation while the rest of America and the world increasingly move toward globalization. From time to time, I am distraught over the deeply felt losses of my ability to transfer useful knowledge and visions and to share social benefits with families struggling in inner­ city and rural black America. Members of my own extended family in Chicago and Mississippi have not been able to shake the demons of four generations of segregation and poverty. And I am not alone. There are few, if any, middle-class blacks from my generation without personal ties to inner-city and rural black America in the North or South. The quality of inner-city living has been devastated by gang violence, unemployment, poor housing, and major health problems generation after generation. Blacks in inner-city America have not been able to keep pace with necessary training and education to participate in the technology and economic revolutions in mainstream America. Black communities cannot survive living in isolation. We must cross learning boundaries to mainstream America to pursue family xi r development and education opportunities and increase our social creating pools of social capital and viable community organizations and economic mobility. Mainstream American families today are and pushing for better educations. These environments can empower on Course to become more independent, self-sufficient, and better and stimulate black families to become more cohesive and viable decision makers and to become the most powerful economic force decision makers in neighborhood and community problem solving if in the twenty-first century. Families are once again at the center we accept and participate in such changes. Collaborations with other of social and acculturation processes shaping economic, social, and ethnic groups on issues of schooling, housing, and healthcare present moral values. Government is vigorously removing the financial new learning opportunities to expand the role of the black families economic, and social nets rooted in the age of the New Deal. Despit; in shaping their own survival. Black political and community leaders the recent efforts to prop up affirmative action programs in education must challenge inner-city